


Marian, Elsa, Regina

by Keenir



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blackadder Reference, Coda, Drabble, Ficlet, Gen, Missing Scene, Sometimes its easier to live for others
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-02-20 00:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets and codas (centering on the title characters of Marian, Elsa, and Regina & their interaction) for this season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Episode One - the coda talk

  _I suppose I should be grateful my life hasn't become reduced to a 'today is Tuesday, that means there'll be an angry mob',_ Regina considered as she opened her door, and found there "Marian?"

"Yes," Marian said.     "I -"

"Robin isn't here," Regina said, _I've been in far too many things where I don't disarm any misapprehensions or thoughts until its too late for words.  And I know Henry would rather I use words than magic on people._

Marian nodded.  "I know.  That's why I am."

"I'm sorry?"

"Could...Could we talk, Mayor?" Marian asked, sounding out the title.

"Of course.  Come in," Regina said.  _If this is a trap, I'm the furthest thing from defenseless.  And if this is sincere, why not?_ "Can I offer you something to eat?"

* * *

When they were both seated at her dining table, Regina watched and waited.  Watched Marian running a finger along the wood grains in the tabletop before plucking an apple from the bowl, and considering it.

Marian said, "You saved us, from that snow thing.  You saved _me._ "

Her voice cold and still and level as she could make it, given the events which had led up to it, Regina said, "I did."

"You could have held off, smiting it down seconds too late," Marian said.  "No one there would have found fault in such a margin of error - how long it took to decide to ignore my telling you to begone and go."

"That isn't why I did...what I did."

"Of course it isn't," Marian said.

"I may not be as busy as I once was, but I still don't have time for whatever you're implying," Regina said.

"Sorry," Marian said.  "What I mean is that you know and I know that you had better reasons than hearts, for your manuvering around to the rear of the snow thing; even if everyone else would have whispered dark things about wanting me out of the way."

 _As you mention it...  Wait -_ "You're more verbose than you've been before," Regina said.

Marian smiled.  "Charming as the Merry Men are, conversation is not their strong suit.  And when you found me, I was in hiding among the villagers."

"Not hiding from me, certainly.  And Maleficent always tended to mention the names of people she was hunting."

"My sister, as it happens, is who I was fleeing."

"And dare I ask why Robin thinks its his fault?"

"He always tries to shoulder the blame, even when he is blameless."

"Yes, I've noticed he does that, though not as often as some heroes I've encountered," Regina said.

"Less than he once did, I hope," Marian said.  "Though I suspect my unorthodox return will not help matters."

Regina held her tongue, figuratively speaking.

Marian then said, "And that is the main thrust of what I wished to discuss with you, Regina.  I knew you before your reformation, your change.  I would like to get to know you as you are now...but I am aware that Robin is a potentially divisive point between us."

"So what do you propose?  Banish him to some other city or world, while you and I have a girls night out?"  _Actually, that's not a bad idea...I should have thought of it ages ago._ _  
_

"Symbolically," Marian said.  "We avoid Robin and his haunts on such nights or days, and we do not discuss Robin or -"

"I agree," Regina said.  _This could work.  Solve all my problems - or a large percentage of my recent ones - in one fell swoop.  And if not, I always have a backup plan.  No doubt Marian does as well_.

 


	2. 1.01 - coda that will undoubtedly be jossed either by now or very soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina learns she and Marian have more in common than anyone thought.

"No!" Regina said.

"Yes," Marian said, nodding with a wicked grin on her face.

"There is no way you were more evil than I was," Regina says with great certainty.

"Ask your dear Doctor Frankenstein.  I'm sure Vic would be happy to confirm it."

"Vic?"

"You call your stepson-in-law 'Charming'," Marian pointed out.

"He's also my son's grandfather," Regina said.

"That doesn't make it better."

"True."

"Though I can see why you'd call him that," Marian said.  "And, back to our discussion..."

"Please."

"When I spoke, kingdoms and duchies trembled."

"No different from me," Regina said.

"I made my army."

'As did I," Regina said.  "The core of it was inherited when I became King Snow's widow, but the majority of it was from my own recruitment drives."

 _No, I mean I literally pieced my army together from donors, but that's quibbling._ "Good to know not everyone was against you."

"Only the vast majority of the world," Regina said.  "The ones who didn't, stayed with me."

"Loyalty is forever good, on any world," Marian said.

"I'll drink to that."

And they clinked their glasses together - water (Emma's idea, before she'd been called to a disturbance by Dispatch) - and "Vic?" Regina repeated.

Marian nodded.  "We were engaged for a time.   No doubt his father would've tolerated his experiments, had he not backed my sister's ousting me from the throne - I was following in our father's footsteps, whereas my sister preferred keeping human alteration purely human...such as Jekyll, her pet assassin.  But Vic did get me out of there half dead and not fully so.  Then I fell through some hole and landed in Sherwood Forest in your Enchanted land.  That's where Robin found me, nursed me back to health, and fell in love with me.  I thought he was adorable."

"He is that," Regina agreed.


	3. Reign

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Didn't get past the first 1/3 of Episode Two, when this occurred to me.

"You're giving up?" Snow White asked. Even to her own ears, with her own voice, it sounded fantastical, even more unbelievable than flying monkeys juggling ships. "You've never given up on _anything_ ," _Not in all the time I've known you._

"Not hardly," Regina said.  "You and Charming are the queen and king of this town - and it's certainly taken the two of you long enough to recognize that.  And Robin and Marian rule the woods of Storybrooke," her tone brooking no argument on that score.

 _One last gesture, one final gift to him.  You never cease to amaze, and I'm proud of you._   "Then...you're _not_ going back to the Enchanted Forest?"

"Oh, that rumor, is true.  I think I've put it off long enough.  Particularly as you're no longer planning to return to claim the castle."

"The castle we both have a right to," Mary Margaret said, nodding.  "I've no doubt you'll use it better than either of us did before."  _Planning revenge, bracing for disaster, and weathering countless storms; we were more alike thank either of us cared to admit._

"Good to hear," Regina said, gratitude in her voice, _if anyone were at her side or her shoulder just now, they would have harped on how grateful and penitent I should be, on how undeserving I am, ad infinitum._   "Besides, after so long without a steady hand ruling the land, the Enchanted Forest may well have reverted to how it once was."

 _You're not talking about the Age Of Ogres, I take it...you mean the Time Of Warlords.  Charming told me about Bo Peep and those like her.  That was one of the good sides to your rule, Regina - you stopped the warlords_.  "You'll be good for the realm, Regina.  I know it, in my heart."  _Even with that bit of darkness in me._    She wasn't sure how to say or think 'and I hope you find happiness again'  - in part from fear that it too would end.

 


	4. Always at hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Didn't get past the first 1/3 of Episode Two, when this occurred to me.

"You want me to _what?"_ Regina asked Marian, the pitch of her voice making Granny look over at the two of them for a moment.

In reply, Marian handed Regina an envelope.  "I have already written one for Robin."

"That's not an answer."

"I wish to return to the Enchanted Forest.   On my own," Marian said.

"If this is about -"

"This is not about you and Robin.  This is not about you.  It is about me," she said.  "If anything, I owe you already."

"You do?" Regina asked, disbelief painted in bold strokes across those two words.

Marian gave a nod.  "When I was brought into your custody, I had not been in that village for three full days, and already I was doing poorly; Robin was running late, and I knew not what to do."  Marian admitted to Regina that, "In all my life, I had always been cared for and tended to.  A daughter, then a ward, then a wife, then a mother.  Not until I was in your prisons, did I bear responsibility for _myself_ and _my_ upkeep."

"And then Emma took you out of there, and into this world."

"She did.  And I let myself go right back to what I was - wife and mother.  Being that, was easier than thinking too hard about anything."  Marian looked down, as though ashamed of what she was about to say: "And I want to be myself a while longer, to see what I can become."

 _In other words, what's kept her from trying to kill me or incite a mob, is the very thing that I nearly had her killed for: belonging._   Considering the woman before her, Regina considered what to do with her.   Then she had a thought, _yes, that will solve our problems nicely,_ and told it to Marian: "I won't send you to the Enchanted Forest."

"What?  But why?  Robin won't blame you -"

"I'm accustomed to being blamed," Regina said.  _But thank you._   "More to the point, I find myself in need of an assistant.  As I doubt Mary Margaret will want to be mayor of our town, the duty falls back upon me - and I want you working for me."  _As I learned, hard work breeds character growth...only yours won't be as pained as mine was_.

"When do I begin?" Marian asked.

"Right after you destroy those letters."

 


	5. Before "rocky road" - Regina's POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina and Elsa meet.

He wants to get me out of the house.

It's an understandable argument, given that I haven't left the house in...  But I'm not letting him pay for lunch - it is lunchtime, isn't it? - there's doing what is right and called for, and then there's the overkill that Henry's learned as much from his grandparents as from me.   As we walk, Henry tells me about a woman named Elsa, not found in his Book, who is looking for her sister Anna, who may or may not be in the Book, Henry isn't sure.

We get to Granny's, and Henry doesn't sit us down at a table - and here I'd thought we were going to eat out as a family - but at the counter beside a blonde woman in a flowing blue outfit.  "Elsa, this is my mom, Regina," Henry says.

Ah, the pieces fall into place.

 "Hi," Elsa says.

"I'm here to help you," I say.   _When Emma's out of the figurative woods, temperature-wise, she'll no doubt be joining us on Operation Mamba or Supercobra or whatever Henry dubs this.  I suppose I should be flattered that, while Emma gets all the Missions and Operations with names, I only get time with Henry._

Elsa looks over at Charming.  The old me would've turned him into a walking stick or relocated him three streets over, and said I'm helping whether she wants me to or not; I wait for whatever signal he gives her, at which point she looks back at me.  "You don't mind?"

"Henry told me that your sister is missing," I say.  "I know better than the rest of them, just how that feels."

"You do?" Elsa asks me.

Leroy makes a rude noise.

"I never knew I had a sister, not until she arrived in Storybrooke," I say.  "But by that point, she didn't want a reunion, she wanted revenge," and I can see fear on Elsa's face...fear of herself.   "If I had known about my sister before then, I'd be doing what you're doing: looking for her."  _No doubt everyone in earshot will laugh amongst themselves, and few if any will believe what I said, true as it is._   "I'd like to help you."

"Because you couldn't help your sister?" Elsa asks, and if anyone else had used that line, they would have laced it with accusations and mockery.  Elsa's is more acceptance and understanding.

"That, and because I'm trying to be a better person than I was."

"Thank you, but you really don't have to do this," Elsa says.

"You don't want my help?" I ask.  _Probably her ear's already been bent about all my deeds._

"I'm dangerous."

I look at Elsa.  "I'm waiting for a reason you don't want my help," I say after a while.

She holds out her hand, palm up, and she creates a little snowman there.

I hold out my own palm, and watch the flames dance on my palm.  They die out when Elsa's snowman is drawn up in the snowy winds that go along her at her whim.  "Are we going now, or after a drink?"

Elsa looks at me with an expression it takes me a while to grasp.  "Please," she says, and we go to the door to begin our search.  _You've never known another magic-user, have you?_


	6. Disclaimers by Regina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (written before seeing anything of rocky road other than the cable channel's description of the episode)

"There is one thing you may want to keep in mind," Regina said. "And its better to be warned of it beforehand, than let it sneak up on you."

"What's that?" Elsa asked.

"The people of this town, have a habit of turning into a bloodthirsty mob at the drop of a hat."

Red looked like she was about to object, just for the sake of it, when Regina shot her a look that clearly said _go ahead, tell me I'm wrong_.

"She's not lying," Red muttered.

"I got away before my mob turned violent," Elsa said. "But thank you both."


	7. Rocky Road's missing scene - Regina and Marian

Regina thrust her hand into Marian's chest, breaking the ice and -

Stood on her bedroom balcony back in the Enchanted Forest.  Marian stood next to her, the two of them looking out across the kingdom.

"I don't remember coming here," Marian said.  "Thus, is this a dream?"

"No," Regina said.  "I'm in the process of removing your heart from your body.  That way, the ice which is taking you over, can't reach your heart, and can't kill you."

"Thank you," Marian said.  "And this view...?"

"It's not a normal part of the process, no," Regina said.   "And before you ask, no, it isn't a rare event either."

Marian looked at Regina, and understood.  "So it's deliberate."

"I'm not -"

Marian waved a hand, a gesture so rarely done to Regina that she stopped talking.  "I heard every word around me, Regina.  And your suggestion and his make equal amounts of sense."  _That there's something getting in the way between the lips of the two persons, vs that I am no longer his One True Love._   "And I thank you."

Regina's brow furrows.  "Why would you thank me?"

"Because you're doing this to help me," Marian said.

"Anyone would do the same," Regina said.

"Robin hasn't."

"Robin?"

"He knows how to remove a heart, Regina.  And he is an expert at defending hearts and other things."

They both thought, each in their way, _Perhaps he's right, to a point, that he is conflicted,_ _that he loves us both_.

"Well then," Regina said, "finding a cure may be easier than I'd thought."

"I wish you well and good fortune, Regina," Marian said.

"Save it," Regina said, though saying it generously, rather than the snubbing ah-be-quiet she'd used on people in the past.  "You need it more than I do," and pulled her hand out of Marian, heart in hand.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm more than a little angry that the love triangle looks like its going to be decided unilaterally. I'm pleased that Robin knows Frederick, because that means we might see the Midas family again!


	8. Coda II to 'Rocky Road'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparked by the momentary smile - and seeming quotation marks - around the word 'woman' when the Snow Queen was answering Elsa's charges in the woods.
> 
> The freezing curse no longer binds Marian...because she no longer has a heart.

Henry brought her to the room; and all the way to this point and even at this point, Regina's mind was racing with all the possible things that could be happening.  _Marian could be awake once more.  The ice might be spreading to the rest of the room.  There could be a transformation from ice to something rather nastier.  Or melting - no, that qualifies as nastier._

Opened the doors, and she joined Robin standing at the sofaside, looking at the... _Something's coming out of the hole I punched in her chest to get her heart out.  Wait a minute, there was no hole when I got Marian's heart.  But that hole_ is _exactly where my hand was, right to the edge of my skin._ _  
_

"There are strings rising up from there, from time to time thus far," Robin said.

"Strings?" Regina repeated.

"Should I get Emma?" Henry asked.

"No," Regina said as a tassel of strings rose up a few inches from the hole, looking for all the worlds like a rope that was confused as to its own composition.

"Space Marines?" Henry asked.

With a smile, "No.  This is from one of the realms that your book doesn't mention, Henry."  To Robin, "Did Marian ever say where she was from?"

"Surely you can't be suggesting that...that _that_ is Marian," Robin said as the strings continued to rise, joined by lattices and joints that similarly seemed nonsensical.

 _Not like Dr. Seuss' nonsensical, more like... Escher?_ Henry thought.

The rising tumbled out of the body, which closed up perfectly smoothly.  The rising rose once more, this time taking on the outline of a young woman.  And, for the most part, lines and semi-creatures and illusions filled out that outline, with clothes more than anything else.

Her face was still recognizably the same as she'd been before the freezing curse, as were her hands.  All else was clothed.

"Whoa," Henry said.

"Indeed," Robin said.

 _Boys,_ Regina thought.  "Greetings, Backless Maiden," Regina said. _Of course - without a heart, she isn't bound to one enclosed form, and can shake off our magics far easier.  I'd say like the proverbial duck, but its even easier for them than for ducks._

"Hello," she said.

"Marian?" Robin asked.

"Yes.   One of."

* * *

**ENCHANTED FOREST, the past:**

She fled.  Escaped.  Crashed most literally upon a world in another realm.

Opened her eyes briefly enough to see clouds raining down upon the ground.  Closed her eyes; this world **hurt**.

.

Opened her eyes once more, found herself lying beside a stream of downhill-flowing water.

"Been a long time since I came across anyone from my home place," she heard.  "The locals - the ones able to speak - would call you a Backless Maiden.  That's what they used to call me.  I tended to your wounds while you slept...no, that's not a made-up word, its what happens here."

"Why?"

"You would have to use more words here - the ways of where we come from, not in any way workable here.  If you mean why did I help you, I'm tired of tending the locals, setting up swans and worthy ladies, teaching lessons to princes.  You are a welcome guest."

.

A day later, her host deemed herself and the Backless Maiden fit to pick up and walk to some other place.  Walking took some getting used to.

After she had been managing a decent walk for part of the morning, "What do they call you here?" she asked her traveling companion.

"They use the name 'Marion'.  Before then, I was as backless a maiden as you are."  She winced.  "Recurring problems occur after a given length of time, however."

"Sparked by what?"

"A heart.  Useful in keeping one's physicality coherent and without gaps."

"The natives have no fun, then?" she asked.

That Marian said, "Theirs is different from ours.  Ours grows from how we mesh with our world.  Theirs is more idiopathic."

"Perhaps I should have fled to another realm, then.  This one is too bizarre for my tastes."

"Were you pursued?"

"Likely so," said the Backless Maiden.

"Then let us aid one another, mighty majestic one," Marian said, placing a hand on her own chest.  After a minute, the colors faded, and the lines of hand and clothes and siloette grew more pronounced...and her hand flowed into her body, then back out...clutching a glowing red heart.

"Garish."

"Without question," Marian agreed.  "But with the heart in you, your pursuers will no longer be able to track you - they will track me, and I shall lead a merry chase."

Hesitant, the Backless Maiden was slow to hold out her own palm.  But once the heart was placed there, she repeated what Marian had done.

As the heart took up lodging within her, she could feel her back, gaps, and bracts all closing.  She was no longer a matter of perspective or optical illusion.  Once her hand withdrew from her chest, both gained strength in color and shape.

She who had been Marian, smiled an almost Dali-esque smile as she literally sketched a bow to her traveling companion, then let herself finish the transformation - her sleeves' plaid patterns re-becoming criss-crossing fish, her fingers a pencilbox of straight lines, her curly hair flowing in and out of her sweater.  "And so we go," and leaped to a branch high up, then another branch further away.

As that one made her way away, Robin Hood and his men raced through the woods.

"What was that?" Robin asked, coming to a stop beside her while many of his men continued onwards.  _Saw that - something - leaping from branch to branch, thought it was worth investigating._

"A plan most cunning, with a tail, and called itself Weasel."

"I see.  And what do you call yourself, milady?"

"Marian," she said.  _It is a perfectly serviceable name._


	9. Coda III to 'Rocky Road'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina needs a drink after what's happened lately. Nobody said it was going to be quiet or easy.

"Welcome," Aslan said as Regina took a seat at the bar, her usual slipped into one hand, the beverage glass cool against her palm.

The town of Storybrooke had exactly two places that served alcohol: one was a bar with pool tables and booths.

And the other was this place, with seats only around the bar; though for the most part the place was more pub-like.  And, for as rarely as she came here, it was Regina's preferred spot for alcohol.

_And every time I come here, the two of you are already here._

"Hard not to hear," Sauron said.

"Says the giant flaming eye," Regina countered.

In this world, Aslan and Sauron were as human as Jiminy Cricket or the Dwarves.  Still...

"You're wondering..." Aslan said to Regina.

"Of course," she said.  _Was what Robin said - even in part - to ensure the safety of Marian's heart when I was extracting and holding it?  Hearts are such fragile things, as I've learned over and over again firsthand._

"Rationalizing is a wonderful tool," Sauron said.

"Weapon," Aslan corrected.

"I get the point," Regina said.  _Neither of them can look into Robin's mind any more than I can - and I can't.  But they know human nature and the foibles of mankind very well._ "Is he still in love with me, or is it his best theory as to why it didn't work when he kissed his wife?  I get it," Regina repeated.

"We could talk to him," Aslan offered.

"Riight, making an offer he can't refuse.  We both learned better about those things, eh?" Sauron asked.

"True.  But for Regina, we can try."

"Don't interfere," Regina said.  "I appreciate it, both of you, but..."

"We understand," Sauron said.  "Your life is complicated enough without the likes of us stepping in."

"Offer stands," Aslan said.

Regina nodded, and just went back to sipping her drink.

 


	10. Apprentice coda...spoilers for Tale Of Two Sisters

Regina was smiling, happily discussing with Henry something that Project Mongoose had turned up in these early days of the operation, when her smile fell as she saw a group of townspeople heading determinedly towards where Elsa and Emma and Mary Margaret (with the baby in her arms) were standing and conferring about something or other.

"Mom?" Henry asked, then saw "Angry mob."

"Right," picking up her pace and arriving just in time to step between the two groups.

Emma saw the look on Regina's face, and wondered if she was about to hear 'you shall not pass'...she doubted it, but it seemed situationally appropriate.

"Out of our way," cried the pieman.

"And why would I do that?" Regina asked.

"Since you're not mayor anymore," said Simon.

Mary Margaret shook her head sadly.  _I know you always say you go along with people so they don't make fun of any slowness on your part, Simon, but mob participation?  Really?_ "Then maybe you can tell your present mayor why you're doing this," Mary Margaret said.

Pointing a finger, Tom Horner pointed a finger at Elsa and started to say, "It's _her_ doing, and -"

"I see," Regina interupted, "and we will," motioning for Elsa to step nearer...though going toward Regina meant also coming closer to the mob.

"What're you doing?" one person asked.

"Calling a witness," Regina answered.  "Unless that's not important for you, in which case, I suggest you leave now."

"Regina?" Mary Margaret asked.

"A little something I learned while I was Mayor," Regina said, loud enough to be heard by Mary Margaret and Henry and Elsa, but not by Leroy or anyone in the mob. "No doubt it would have proven quite useful before I cast the Curse."

"So long as its safe," Mary Margaret said.

"Safer for _them_ than if your young son was woken by their noise."

 _Sometimes its easy to forget that Regina raised a baby on her own._ "What's involved?"

"Sight, and memory," and Regina looked to Elsa.  "I want for you to remember one of the times you encountered someone here.  Concentrate," and cupped her empty palm in front of Elsa's eyes.  "Focus."

Elsa nodded, staring at Regina's hands, the curled fingers, and she thought back to...

 _I was walking down the blackroad,_ as a chill set into Regina's fingers.  _Came to a broad sign proclaiming the border of Storybrooke,_ as frost magic swirled in the space between those cupped fingers.

"Whoa," Henry said, seeing what Elsa must have seen. 

Emma thought, _Like it's an IMAX movie, only in mid-air._

What they saw was **_bright light, blazing towards me, veering back and forth like an crazed elk, before it decided upon a course of action - to charge straight towards me.  Racing towards me, making no effort to slow or dodge where I stood unmoving.  I thrust out one hand and, with it inches away, I stopped it in its tracks._**

"Leroy?" Mary Margaret asked after a moment.  "You met Elsa first, isn't that what you said?"

"Yeah," Leroy said.

"Is this what happened?"

Elsa's reaction wasn't restricted to her eyes - her magic burst out of Regina's grasp, looking like fireworks to anyone else; Regina pulled her hand back.

 _Very nearly burned,_ Regina considered, looking over that hand.

"I'm sorry," Elsa said.

To Mary Margaret's question, Leroy was saying, "I shouldn't have let Sleepy drive."

"It's strangely reassuring that I'm not the only one they avoid giving a straight answer to," Regina said lightly to Mary Margaret, in the spirit of shared aggravation.  To Elsa, "I would've done worse, and tried to take her out in the process."

 _That was the old you_ , Henry knew.  _And Archie says that if you can talk about the past, and stay calm, then that's real progress_.

 


	11. AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Ingrid had indeed taken Gold's power, at the end of Break the Mirror...perhaps this may have happened.

"I have one too," Elsa said, touching the yellow ribbon wrapped around her wrist, in just the same way that Emma was touching the yellow ribbon wrapped around her own wrist.

And then -

A flash of a name - three names - their names - across her field of view:

**ELSA**

**EMMA**

**INGRID**

And something happened to their hands, they could feel it, so they looked  -

Two hands. One with a yellow ribbon at the base. One with fingers and thumb curled around the handle of a knife only visible for a moment, before it dissolved into the air.

"Another illusion?" Emma asked.

"A strange blade," Elsa said.

"No," Henry said, wishing it were anything but - anything but _that_.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked.

"I've seen that blade too," Snow said. "I nearly used it once."

"Great, what's it do?"

"It controls the Dark One."

"Gold?" Emma asked.

Snow looked at Emma and Elsa, and for a moment, saw their faces as scaled and offcolor as Rumplestiltskin's had been back in their own land. And then, in the next moment, saw their faces as they had been earlier today, in the full blush of health. "Yeah," Snow breathed.

"But it can't be," Henry said. "The only way to get his dagger and his powers, is to kill the Dark One...then you become the new Dark One."

"But - we didn't," Elsa said. "We were right here." But she couldn't help looking at her ribbon, just as Emma was.


End file.
